South Okanagan

Photo: Contributed

The South Okanagan Similkameen Conservation Program and RDOS will hold public meetings in the weeks ahead to introduce a biodiversity conservation strategy.

Keeping Nature in our Future is a strategy to help ensure the ecosystems in this region are here for future generations. 

“This South Okanagan-Similkameen is a spectacular place,” said SOSCP manager Bryn White. “Its  warm climate and abundance of resources have created an environment almost perfect for human comfort. But the region is also a biologically unique area with species and ecosystems that do not exist anywhere else in Canada and in some cases the world.

Many of these ecosystems are facing serious threat from the very activities that make our lifestyle so complete.”

The key to reversing these threats is action on the part of local government in the form of careful  land use planning and development, incentives for landowners and developers and other tools such as land acquisition and stewardship, according to the SOSCP.

Feedback from the community consultations  will be provided to local governments as part of their review and decision  making process.

Upcoming open houses include:

• Old Age Pensioners Hall, Naramata,  5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Feb. 18.
• Oliver Community Centre,  5 to 7 p.m., Feb. 19
• Okanagan Regional Library building, Princeton, 5 to 7 p.m.,  March  4
• Keremeos Victory Hall, 5 to 7 p.m., March 6
• RDOS board room, Penticton,  5 to 7 p.m., March 7
• Sonora Centre, Osoyoos,  5 to 7 p.m., March 11